St. Paul daily globe., 1887-10-23

under the road. It's bed is deep guIch,
but we were told that this was not so in
the old days. Then the brook flowed
| through narrow, grassy valley,
which still spreads out through
! the rolling fields by long and graceful
curves. But the course of the brock
| was turned, and the place where it once
trickled through might be called a piece
of dry marsh. winding through the hills
and concealed from observation except
at both ends. Here it was that many OF
| the duels were fought, but not the most
famous OF them all. A hundred yards
| further Oh. and you come to little
grassy dip in the meadow by the brook
side. A moment later and you stand on
| the spot where Decatur and many
| man as brave and vain
fell pistol OR sword in hand. What
| pictures could not one cOniure up stand
| ing there Oh the green, velvety Sward {.
Within hundred feet as many as fifty
| high-spilited and hCt-blooded gentle
men have fallen. cut down in the prime
| of life, leaving wife and children and
brilliant careers and SWeet-faced. sad
! eyed mothers who would never smile
again. How different the spot now from
what it was in those almost Semi-barbdric
days! The scene now presented to the
eye is peaceful and pastoral one. The
old ground is meadow and cattle are
grazing in the valley.
SOME OF THE FAMOUS DUELS.
Besides the duel in which Decatur
fell before the pistol of Commodore
Barron there was number of others
almost as famous. The encounter be-
tween Representatives Graves. of Ken
lucky, md Cilley, of Maine, was one
that attracted good deal of attention
qt tho tIYna
prominent in public life. The weapons
were rifles and the distance ninety-two
yards. Henry A. Wise, of Virginia,
was the second of Graves. The princi-
pals both fired twice and missed. In
the third vOlley Cilley fell, shot through
the body, and died in three minutes.
There were present at this affair the en-
tire Kentucky delegation, Duncan, of
Ohio, Bynum of North Carolina and
Jones, of Wisconsin. The latter sec
onded Cilley.
senator from Virginia, was shot dead by
John NJ. McCarty, his cousin, i'm duel
with musket and ball. They stood but
ten feet apart. McCarty had had i'm
proper relations with MaSon's wife.
They first challenged each other to fight
at three feet, then at three inches, and
finally to sit on powder barrel and
blow each other up.
John RandOlph's famous duel with
Henry Clay was first arranged to take
place at Bladensburg, but at almost the
last moment the erratic Virginian
changed his mind and declared that il
his native Virginia. So they went
across the river to the Chain Bridge.
Clay had fought before in 1908, but Ran
dolph was a novice at this meet
ing. which occurred in 1926. He
annoyed Clay, who was secretary
of state. by calling him a blackleg and
charging him with diplomatic forgery.
At last, during debate in the senate,
Randolph referred to Clay as ''that be-
ing so brilliant yet so corrupt, who, like
a rotten mackerel by moonlight, shined
and stunk." Randolph spent the night
before the duel in quoting poetry and
playing whist while his will was being
changed. Clay's bullet passed through
the skirt of the Virginian's coat. Ran
dolph did not fire at Clay, on the ground
that Clay had wife and children while
he had no family.
THE OLD TOWN AND ITS TAVERN.
But the list is too long and too bloody
to give in its entirety. One gladly turns
his back on the little valley and goes
down the road towards quaint old Blad-
enSDurg. Ihe turnpike is really the
principal street of the town. Itstretches
! along flat floor of sand, thirsty like it's
! citizens, and is at both ends stopped
by ford and bridge, for the little
river that was makes turn round
the bottom of the village and shoots off
a creek round the top of it. The
/ grave, hip-rOOfed, blackened houses
! which line either side of the sandy street
| look in the twilight like rows of wrecked
| hulks along a bar when the tide has gone
out. There is 10 stir, 10 buste-not
| even that of the small country town.
You 10 not see a vehicle move down the
street once an hour, and the few mer-
chants sit l0ling and sleeping in their
doors, without even the energy to brush
| the mosquitoes away.
/ A short distance down the desolate
street that holds SO many historic men,
orics still stands the famous duelist
tavern. An OLD citizen here says that